Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Robert Novak Dies at 78; My Favorite Novak Clip

Conservative columnist Bob Novak has died at 78. Below is my favorite Novak clip, where he decided that James Carville wasn’t worth any more of his time.

Judge Rules That Google Must Give Up Name of Anonymous Blogger in Defamation Suit

This doesn’t seem like a good sign: A Manhattan judge ruled yesterday that a blogger can’t hide behind a web of anonymity while flinging the ugly words “skank” and “ho” at somebody online. The sternly worded ruling orders Google to give up the identity of an anonymous blogger-assailant who inexplicably devoted an entire blog — […]

Wouldn’t Rich People Go On Murder Sprees In a System of Private Law?

In the previous post, I relayed some (good) objections from a reader of my pamphlet [.pdf] describing a stateless society. One of the objections went like this (paraphrasing): “In Murphy’s vision, ‘crimes’ are actually codified contractually, and the punishments are typically monetary. So that means rich people could go on killing sprees, and just pay […]

More Challenges to Chaos Theory

Daniel Cotter is debating a minarchist buddy and told him to read my pamphlet, Chaos Theory [.pdf]. Below is a list of questions that the minarchist had. These are great questions, but unfortunately I am too swamped with “real work” to answer them anytime soon. So I hope some of you can help Daniel in […]

More "Efficient Markets" Nonsense?

At a reader’s suggestion, I checked out the Fama/French website, which is a neat set of Q&A on the implications of the “efficient markets hypothesis” (EMH) way of viewing the world. This particular question–and French’s answer–threw me: Question: Firms often pay a substantial premium to the market price when making acquisitions. Does their willingness to […]

China Central Bank Diversifying Out of USD

Tony Crescenzi reports on CNBC: New data on international capital flows into U.S. financial assets were released Monday indicating that in June China was a net seller of $25.1 billion of U.S. Treasuries. Many will put the sale in the context of China’s $38 billion buying splurge in May, but the better metric is put […]

Privatize Your Own Banking Through Whole Life Insurance

Here is a good Forbes article about “becoming your own banker” through the proper use of (mutual) whole life insurance policies. Now is probably a good time to announce that I am working on a book on this very concept with L. Carlos Lara. We are going to marry the traditional Austrian affinity for insurance […]

The Wheels On the Bus Go Round Round Round

The American Energy Alliance’s bus tour is underway! If you live in a coal producing state, it might be stopping outside a fair near you! We are still working on logistics, but I might be spending a few days on the bus if there is a speaking opportunity. I just hope they don’t want me […]